encyclopediafandomcom-20200222-history
Sonic Adventure/AutoDemo prototype
The Sonic Adventure AutoDemo is a build of Sonic Adventure that was given to Japanese retailers to promote the game using CPU-controlled demos and cutscenes. With a burn date of October 16, 1998, this build predates the Japanese final release by approximately two months. Upon digging through the AutoDemo's contents, however, a plethora of unused and never-before-seen content was found to be inside...some of which was thought to be lost to time. It was recovered and released on May 21, 2013 by Orengefox. Demo Sequence As this is an autodemo, the game will not react to the player's inputs at-all. As a result, the introduction movie and demos can not be skipped by pressing anything. For some reason, the SEGA screen will not appear upon booting, but will appear after a few demos. * During the cutscene where Sonic and Tails exit Casinopolis, it's set at dusk instead of night. * The third demo uses the prison scene with Amy and Gamma. Due to the game lacking a demo featuring him because of this, Knuckles' theme goes unused in the demo. * The demos used for Amy and Gamma in the final are swapped in this version. Gamma's demo appears as the fourth demo and Amy's as the fifth. * Gamma's demo plays Red Mountain instead of Windy Valley. * Amy's demo plays Final Egg instead of Hot Shelter, due to the latter level being missing. * Big's demo starts in a different location. * The intro is slightly different, Tails has a different expression, one shot of the buildings is different and Gamma is missing his numbers. Interestingly, a higher-quality version is used in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut. Graphical Differences * The SEGA logo is darker and smaller than the one in the final. * Mission cards have different text, and are missing a glowing effect around the icon. The one for E-104 also re-uses Gamma's model, and English graphics exist. * All life-boxes (except for Sonic) are facing to the right instead of the left. * The ring icon for the HUD is different, and includes a "level" segment that was removed from the final. The "level" segment was likely meant to represent the current mission. ** Bigs also lacks darkened colors, the weight is locked at 12345g, and lives are represented by lure icons. * The Chao stress icon looks different. * The billboard advertising "Chao in Space" in the final advertises something completely different in the AutoDemo: "The Man 3". This is actually in the final, but only appears in the Egg Walker fight, and was removed in SADX. * The pause menu uses an earlier design than the one in the final, though it can't normally be seen as the pause menu is disabled. * There are two images (stored in halves) reading "Start!!" and "Goal!!" in the AutoDemo's files. They seem to be some of the earliest files in the game, dating back to November 11, 1997. * Japanese text lacks anti-aliasing. Audio Differences * All music is stored in BGM.AFS in the autodemo, in the final, they're all separate files. * The music tracks for Emerald Coast Acts 1 & 2, Ice Cap Act 2, Lost World Acts 1 & 2, And... Fish Hits!, and some event themes are stored on the game's disc, but go unused. Goin Down?! and Theme of Chao are used in their respective levels, but technically go unused as there's no demos for those levels. * The 1-up jingle is the Get Chaos Emerald jingle taken straight from Sonic 2. In the final it is a reorchestrated arrangement of that jingle. * The "animal get" sound is present, but unused. Instead, the ring sound is played when an animal is acquired from a Badnik. * The classic "bubble collect" sound from the original 2D games is present, but unused. In both this build and the final, no sound is played when a bubble is collected. * Likewise, the classic drowning sound from the original 2D games is present, but unused. In the final, voice acting is used for the drowning death animation. * The classic sound effect for losing a shield from the original 2D games is present, but unused. In the final, no sound is made in this situation. * The classic sound effect for getting hurt is present, but unused. The final uses a modern version of the ring drop sound instead. * ALIFE Bank 1, where the Chao voices are stored, has some voices for actions the Chao can't do in this build. * Many enemies are missing their sound effects; for instance, the shuffling sound Ice Balls make in Icecap. * Tikal's "This Way!" hint (mainly seen in the final in Knuckles' levels) is not voiced in this build. * Most music-tracks were altered in someway or another: ** Title Screen - A 5 second riff of Open Your Heart as opposed to 13 seconds. ** Blue Azure World (Emerald Coast Act 1) - The bass is louder, guitar has less reverb, rhythm guitar is missing, and the acoustic guitar is louder. ** Run Through the Speed Highway (Speed Highway Act 1) - This track plays at a slightly faster tempo than its finalized mix. The "Right!" voice clip is quieter, and the song seems to get louder at 0:54. ** Goin' Down (Speed Highway Act 2) - This track loops twice. The vocals are also louder and lack fading. ** Be Cool, Be Wild and Be Groovy (Icecap Act 3) - The percussion is more blunt in this version and is also missing the second half. ** Mt. Red, a Symbol of Thrill (Red Mountain Act 1) - The saxophone in the song sounds as if it's been run through a range compressor. Additionally, the guitar solo near the end sounds quite different and unpolished. ** Red Hot Skull (Red Mountain Act 2) - The track plays longer. In fact, it nearly matches the length of its official soundtrack release! ** Tricky Maze (Lost World Act 1) - The drums at the beginning seem to be louder. ** Danger! Chased by Rock (Lost World Act 2) - Missing instruments, and what's there is rather different at times. ** Theme of Chao (Chao Garden) - One of the tracks with the most noticeable changes. The percussion is entirely different and the melody, backing brass and accordion are quieter. There are additional flourishes to the backing brass near the end of the song (at about 1:20 in the track). ** Event: The Past (Cutscene music) - This track is shorter, missing the oboe section from the final. ** Event: Fanfare for "Dr.EGGMAN" (Cutscene music) - The instruments are panned differently. ** Appearance: Knuckles (Knuckles' theme short ver.) - Different melody on rhodes. ** Appearance: Miles (Tails' theme short ver.) - The percussion is mixed differently to the final. The vocals also sound duller compared to the final. ** Appearance: E-102 (Gamma's theme short ver.) - Skips the piano section at the beginning. ** And... Fish Hits! (Big's fishing game) - The track has a snappier percussion than the final. The electric guitar is also missing. Gameplay Differences There are numerous gameplay differences compared to the final game: * The player starts with 2 lives instead of 4. * The camera feels very different to the one in the final. Its rotation controls can sometimes be inverted depending on the current angle. * Completing a level does not cause the level music to stop playing and plays the Chaos Emerald sound over the top of it. There's no results tally either. * The draw distance seems to be different. Notably, Speed Highway 3 seems to be smaller than both early images and the final version. * Instead of abruptly being taken to a black screen upon losing all your lives, the GAME OVER text simply displays onscreen. Because the screen hastily fades out to black, though, it's only visible for less than a second. * The transition from one Act to another doesn't seem to work correctly. The lighting and music will not update until the player either restarts or dies. Characters * There are a number of unused animations for fighting combos as Knuckles that were never used in the AutoDemo or the final game. * Characters don't have any idle animations aside from those for standing still. They also don't talk after standing still for long periods of time. * While all characters have the pushing action implemented, Sonic is the only character who can do so for an extended period of time; everyone else will briefly push and then stop. Sonic is also the only character who actually has a moving sound implemented when pushing something as well. * Sonic is the only character that can push an object for an extended period of time. All other characters can only briefly push (though as Sonic, a moving sound can be heard too). * Picking up objects is in a very buggy, early state. Notably, it has difficulty choosing a target among multiple objects. * Only Big and Sonic have the ability to put down a held object without throwing it. Gamma can't pick up objects at all. * Held items cannot be shaken. * Sonic has a different action pose. However, the old one is still used in a number of cutscenes in the final. * Sonic, Tails and Big's idle animations are faster in the autodemo. * Sonic can lean left or right when standing on sloped surfaces in this version. In the final, he can only lean forward or backward. * The action/animation list the characters is different than the final. As an example, Sonic's Free move is 73, whereas in the final it's 83. * Upgrades are very unfinished - the only implemented upgrade is Sonic's Light Speed Attack. Knuckles, Amy, and Gamma's Shovel Claw, Warrior Feather, and Jet Booster abilities respectively are part of their default movesets. The existing upgrade does not attach any extra models to Sonic like the ones in the final game do. * The Light Speed Attack's charging animation orbs are brighter than they appear in the final game. * The Light Speed Attack works differently to the final. Sonic kneels down, the player can press A to move or B to turn the move into a standard homing attack. * Many character textures are higher resolution than the ones in the final game. This includes (but not limited to) Amy's hammer, Big's belt, and Sonic's shoe buckle. * Tails is missing an animation for getting tired while flying. * Tails and Amy are missing animations for jumping while carrying an object. * Knuckles' gliding sound does not fade out and will continue for a short while after landing. * Amy does not hold her hammer while running. * Amy makes a sound when being locked onto by Zero. * Amy's hammer does not make any sounds. * Amy's dress flies further upwards when she falls. This was likely changed for censorship reasons. * The opponent Sonic in Tails' Icecap does not speak. * Drowning is very incomplete. The numbers that appear are very large and only appear for a fraction of a second. There's also no drowning animation - the game will just send the player back to the nearest checkpoint. * Gamma will quickly go into his "holding gun" idle pose if he comes to a stop. Chao The Chao system is very limited in comparison to the Chao system used in the final. All Chao in the garden will stay completely still until the player approaches them, when they will then run up to the player continuously. If a Chao gets hurt by the player, they may decide to briefly run away from them instead. * The Chao make "Chao Chao!" sounds constantly. * The animals don't affect the Chao's evolution in the same way as the final. * All the Chao in the garden are child chao. * Chao don't die from abusing them too much. * The animals will change a Chao's appearance instantly and more potently than the animals in the final. * The "evolutions" are actually the child Chao morphing beyond the limits that are in the final game, giving the appearance of a different Chao. * Chao do not recognise water and run around underwater as if they were on land. * Chao slide very far when thrown. * A very basic version of the garden camera is used. Pressing Y+L/R will zoom in and out unrestricted by characters, walls etc. In the final game, the camera only has 3 set zoom levels controlled by the D-Pad. * The only garden that can be loaded in the AutoDemo is the Station Square garden. Enemies * There's an extra enemy present in Final Egg (according to the game's code, it's called E HIYOKO, which translates to E CHICK), which only appears once and is untextured. Its ID is still in the final, but the code points to the Egg Keeper. * Rihnotanks have incorrect textures in this build. This is because their actual files are missing, but the game still references them. * The player can't pick up bombs thrown by Kikis. * Enemies make fewer sounds than the final. For example, Kikis make no sound when throwing bombs and Ice Balls don't make any sounds when moving around. * Ice Balls don't give animals upon exploding. * Zero has different "?" and "!" symbols, the latter making a sound usually reserved for the menu. His attack's lock-on target is also more solid compared to the final. Objects There are a few objects in the AutoDemo that look or behave different to their counterparts in the final. * The rocket platform added a lower part so that the player could walk into the rocket without needing to jump onto the platform. * The jump panels were changed considerably for the final release. They have a flatter appearance in the final. There's also an extra star-panel that was removed. * Jump ramps are do not make sounds and usually fail to launch you to the correct point. * The spike walls in Emerald Coast make no sounds and fall deeper into the ground than they do in the final. * The player can't homing attack all the springs in the game. Some can be locked onto, but others can't. * There is only type of spring used in the AutoDemo - the large variation. In the final, a smaller variation is used as well. * Checkpoints are not activated after respawning at them. * Item Boxes have a green tint at the bottom that isn't in the final. * Capsules do not release animals. * The fire hydrants in Speed Highway 3 don't make any sound when you break them. * The cars in Speed Highway 3 stop at a much further distance than the final and can't hurt the player. They also have incorrect textures. * When a "?" box is broken, the "?" icon is displayed to the player. In the final, "?" boxes will display the icon corresponding to the amount of rings given to the player. For that matter, only the icons for 5-ring and 10-ring boxes exist in the game. * There are no Bomb, Invincibility, or Shield item boxes. (Their icons don't exist. Same goes for the unused Timer icon.) * The ice block switches in Icecap 2 do not cause ice blocks to appear. * Big can't pick up the boulders in Icecap. * Reflections on the spike-balls don't seem to be working properly. External Links * Sonic Retro release forum * Sonic Retro page * The Cutting Room Floor page Category:Early versions of video-games